- July 5, 2026
Sunset: Heroes of the Milky Way (Chapter 34)
Alloya Ra’non
Enter the Demon
The Rango meets me halfway back to Ramone’s tunnel. The Rango immediately has its back ramp down for me to enter with Clay and Womby in tow. Terra must be getting ready to receive Clay..
This is my fault. I didn’t predict Lamberine setting Womby on one of us like that, not when he was supposed to be in the tournament. How many different powers has Lamberine taunt Womby in two weeks? It’s insane.
Even worse, he called us on that fact that we would hold back. That almost got Clay killed.
When I enter the Rango I waste no time, immediately yelling, “Computer, tell Terra to put the ship in autopilot, then he and Hideo need to meet me in the lounge! Immediately! Emergency!”
‘They are already on their way, Captain.”
Clay needs Terra’s help, and then I need to run this idea past him. We need to break Lamberine’s hold on Womby before he wakes up. Hopefully my punch combined with exhaustion from his fight with Clay will keep him unconscious for a while.
I enter the lounge and drop Womby on the ground so I can lay Clay out on the couch. I kneel down towards his head to feel for his temperature, and he is cool. “How are you feeling?” I ask him.
“A lot… a lot hurts,” he admits. “I want to say I’ve been through worse, but that was only one other time, so this is still pretty bad.”
Smartass.
I lean down to stroke his hair out of his face, feeling his sweat get lost in his hair follicles. I whisper, “Not for long, Terra is going to come down and patch you up.”
“Terra’s good, but he’s what does he know about Humans? Can he even stop all the blood?” Then he tries to sit up, but I stop him with a hand to his shoulder. He tries to tell me, “I know we don’t have much time, but I think I’ll need you to either throw me into the sun again, or leave me somewhere and let Sera heal me.”
“Will she do that?” I ask befuddled. Clay has never mentioned Sera to be the helpful kind.
“She makes me clothes, so I would think that she would keep me from dying,” he mentions. He gets this small grin on his face as he tells me but mocks Sera, “I don’t exactly have other blood relatives that she could go to, so she’s kind of stuck with me.”
I return a weak smile.
I hear many footsteps. Hideo and the Reeky-tites come around the corner. Hideo, who seems slightly more rejuvenated, hops over the couch to turn and kneel besides me. He tells me, “I can watch over him if you need to do something.”
When the Reeky-tites go to care and hold their son, Womby starts stirring. I tell Hideo, “Thank you, please do that.”
Pekipsea is holding Womby in her arms, patting his face trying to get him to wake up. When his eyes start fluttering open she gets teary eyed. I walk over to her and tell her I’m sorry.
When she gives me a confused face, I push her aside, crack the side of Womby’s head with the quickest haymaker I can muster at this angle. He’ll be sleeping for little while longer.
“Alloya?!” Pekipsea screams as I’m rubbing my forehead. Torun tries to push me away, but it’s not like they have the strength to move me.
I point to Clay as I remind them, “This is what he did. He’s still under Lamberine’s control and trying to kill us. Unless you want us to stop holding back, he can suffer a few minor concussions.”
Both parents look between their son and Clay, and Pekipsea just holds Womby close but no longer tries to wake him.
I hear the elevator open and Terra walks in in. I order Hideo, “Let us make room.” Then I rush over to Terra to place my hands against his chest. “Terra, Clay really needs your help.” Terra nods his head and I help Hideo move furniture around so Terra has room to operate on Clay.
Terra looms over Clay to inspect his wounds. He admits, “I don’t know enough about your tissue to replicate it. You’re going to have to settle for me stopping the bleeding until Alloya can bring you to the sun.”
“Figured.” Before Terra starts, Clay informs him, “Just be extra careful with the wound on my left side. It’s kinda right over my heart.”
“Damn,” is Terra’s immediate remark to this situation. Then he turns to me, “I don’t want to try and operate on him then. I didn’t even know where his heart was located.”
I plead with my hands, “But Terra—”
“I won’t. Something goes wrong and he’s dead in minutes. Take him to this solar system’s sun. That’s the better way,” he recommends as he turns around to face me.
Then I lean back and gesture towards Womby with my head. “How would you deal with him while I’m gone? I’m not going to heal Clay only to find you and Hideo with the shit kicked out of you, or worse.”
I don’t say that I may find Womby dead because his parents are listening.
“What do you have in mind?” Terra asks, believing that I must have a plan.
I do, and it might solve both Clay’s and Womby’s problem, but it’s super risky. I ask Terra, “Remember the time Jackal was in that coma? After trying to defuse a bomb that exploded too soon?”
Terra immediately knows what I am talking about. “No, we are not doing that again. We were lucky to escape them, we were lucky that Jackal’s power was psychologically based. None of us could chain them back up if we tried to share a consciousness like that.”
“What are you two talking about?” Hideo asks. “If this can help Clay or Womby, we do it, no questions asked.”
“You don’t understand,” Terra assures him.
“Then freakin’ explain then! Enough with the secrets. Spit it out!” Hideo has understandably and seemingly had enough of the tiptoeing around. He wasn’t in the loop about Aleti or Rom, and I am sure that is not lost on him.
I inform him that, “When Jackal fell into a coma, Terra and I formed another conscious space where we could all talk. Where we could pull him out.”
Clay questions as he sits up against better judgment, “You think we could pull Womby out of Lamberine’s… trance or whatever?”
“Yes, but…” I trail off.
“But what?” Clay asks.
Terra drops the bombshell that, “All of our demons come with us.”
I can see chill run through Clay’s and Hideo’s spines when he says that. The new conscious is eerily similar to the space our demons take up.
Terra continues to explain, “In this new conscious space, the demons don’t have any chains binding them. We are at their mercy. They can kill us and take us over assuming we can’t talk them out of not doing so.”
Hideo rambles, “Well I like to think that Yarg and I are pretty buddy buddy and everything.” Then he shakes his head as he admits, “But I don’t know about me and Sera, or Rega. Could they eat me, or only our demons can?”
I admit, “There really isn’t anything to stop Titrainan from killing any of us to allow his fellow demons to take over a new body.”
“Oh, well that’s just, spectacular,” Hideo goes.
Clay tries to move off the couch, which causes some pain as he clutches his side. “Clay stay down,” I tell him.
“No,” he replies sternly, which catches me off guard. “We’re doing this. We’re gonna do this and save Womby. That’s what we do, risk life and limb for our friends.”
Terra tells him, “But what if we fail? What if the demons get control? Those maniacs would have control over all of our bodies. Think of the damage they could do.”
“Maybe I just have more faith in my demon than the rest of you,” Clay starts, “but I think they realize that there is probably a good reason as to why they are all sealed inside us anyway.”
Hideo backs him up, “Yeah. I’m willing to take that risk, and that is probably a very stupid, and very dangerous idea, but I’d do anything to save one of our own. Isn’t the same for you?”
I turn my head to Terra, and only meets me with his eyes. I tell him, “I don’t know of another way.”
“You haven’t been thinking about it that long,” Terra grumbles.
Torun walks up to Terra and asks of him, “Please. This may be the only way to save my son. I know that it’s selfish, and dangerous, but, I don’t what else we do. Please don’t abandon him, don’t kill him.”
Terra seems shocked by the father’s pleading words. “I would never kill him! We wouldn’t do that!” Terra reasons.
“We’ll have to,” Hideo interjects. “If we don’t do this, we can’t lock him up. He’ll keep coming after us, and we’ll have to kill him.”
“And even if we keep knocking him out, he’ll probably get brain damage,” Clay grumbles as he feels more pain from his wound.
“It’s not like we have a lifetime’s supply of tranquilizers that will work on a Guardian.”
Terra thinks to himself. Talking, grumbling, and trying to figure out if there is another option. Then he turns to face us. He sighs.
“What choice do I have? We all are going, aren’t we?” Terra asks.
“Of course,” Clay says.
“What do you think?” Hideo sounds off.
I just throw Terra a knowing glance.
Terra looks so very unhappy with everything. Then he turns into doctor mode. “Alright, if we’re going to do this, best that we form a circle. Everyone needs to be connected so it is easiest that we all hold hands.” We don’t start moving at first but then Terra questions us, “Do you want to do this or not?” That gets us started. “Alloya and Clay should go on either sides of me to grab my arms. Some of you need to grab Womby.”
Hideo is helping Clay up when Clay suggests, “Put him between us.”
Hideo places Clay on Womby’s right side and then moves to sit next to me to my right. When Terra sits between Clay and I, we grab hold of his arms.
“Why do I feel like we’re apart of some cult sacrifice?” Hideo asks, only half joking.
Terra does remind him, “We are technically cohorting with demons.”
“True,” Hideo admits.
Terra then explains, “We all need to channel our power together, not thinking of anything else. The connection, the conscious will form itself. The demons will most likely speed along the process. In fact, I would venture to guess that it’s really them who are doing all the leg work, we’re just making it possible.”
“How do we channel our power together with Womby knocked out?” Clay asks.
“With him unconscious, the power should move freely through him like it did with Jackal,” Terra explains. “Everyone just charge their energy. Nothing extreme. If we just empty our minds, and power freely throughout our bodies, the power will start jumping between us.
“Is everyone ready?” Terra asks. When we all then nod our heads he orders, “Then start.”
Immediately I start channeling energy, and I try not to think of anything else.
At first it feels like my energy goes to my hands and collides against Hideo’s and Terra’s, bouncing back through my body like a bullet. They fight to leave and go to the other, and goes like this for a while.
The lounge starts to shake and power lashes out, making it look like we’re actually summoning a demonic presence.
Stop thinking. Just let it flow. Slowly, my energy starts mixing with Hideo’s, letting it attach itself to each other. The same happens with Terra. They start melting, and forming carts on a train.
Then it comes.
Bang! Bam! Bam! Bang!
The power from all of us starts moving fast in our circle. I feel mine leave me and get replaced by Terra’s, then Clay’s, then Hideo’s, then mine again. They move and I feel my own power leave as soon as it came. Soon, it blends together. I cannot tell the difference between—
*****
I open my eyes to this… well, it’s not a room, and it’s not a cave. It’s darkness surrounding single ray of light, and we all surround it. The darkness isn’t just room I can’t see, it’s… it’s nothing.
As I push myself up, I feel tired in a way I haven’t experienced in years, not since I was a chi—
My powers are gone.
I look around and ways away where, in the same order we were holding hands, are my friends. They proceed to wake up as I just did. We’re all significantly farther from each other than we were back in our world. We could probably all speak to each other, but way too far to be within arm length.
“You sleepy-heads are finally up,” I hear a familiar voice say. I look to my right, next to Hideo to see Womby, sitting on his bum, with a soft smile.
“You’re here,” I mutter in a smile. “If you’re able to speak with us, you should have your mind and body back.”
“You guys did this?” Womby asks all surprised. Than with shining teeth he smiles at me. “Thank you… I think?”
“Womby,” a more sullen voice says to my left. Clay has gotten up and is looking at Womby with look of guilt. “Do you remember anything?”
Womby tells him honestly, “Yeah, I remember everything. I didn’t get a choice, but I remember everything.”
Clay dips his head, then tries to walk across the room to Womby, then he walks into an invisible wall. “What the hell?”
Terra informs him, “We have our own spaces to stay in I guess. We don’t possess our usual powers here so don’t expect to have the strength to break it down.”
Clay slams two fists against the invisible wall, causing his hands to flatten up against it as if it is glass. “Listen, Womby, I’m really sorry.”
“It’s okay, I did skewer you.”
“I am really sorry for nuking you.”
I hear Hideo giggle, “You nuked him? So that’s what the boom was. You probably killed a lot of fish dude.”
Clay’s hands tighten against the wall, before he slumps down and glares at Hideo. “Yeah, I know, and that’s part of the reason I am sorry.”
Womby tells Clay, “You’ve probably caused destruction around the planet with that. Probably destroyed most of the underground homes of the Watree.”
“I… I know,” Clay admits, defeated.
“Though, I was trying to kill you, I can’t say that I wouldn’t have done worse if you hadn’t stopped me first. I’m not going to hold it against you, just… don’t expect Riverteria to forgive you.”
Clay nods his head and mutters, “I understand.”
“So,” Womby begins, “if I should be free now by simply being here, why don’t we leave?”
“Umm, are you free now? I don’t think that’s how it works.”
Before I can answer someone behind me does.
“You’re correct, it doesn’t,” a thundering, but familiar demonic voice chimes behind me. “It is a strange feeling, Alloya, not knowing what you are thinking.”
I slowly turn around to see someone I’ve never wanted to. I hear the thundering footsteps of the giant as the demon known as Rega, move towards me in the shadows.
From what I can make out, she moves like she’s swimming through air. Light reflects off of her red eyes with the slits for pupils. Then the monster smiles, revealing canines and a mouth large enough to eat the Rango. Before I can see what she looks like completely, she stops to stay in the shadows, content to intimidate me with only her eyes and fangs.
Never before have I considered that she might not be my size.
“Look around, oh Captain. Witness the position your actions have put your team in,” Rega tells me. “Don’t worry yet. I wouldn’t eat you with your back turned. I wouldn’t get to see your face.”
I turn around slowly to see that each of my friends seem to be in the same harrowing position that I’m in. Each one of them, except Womby, is now backed by their own terrifying demon staying in the depth of shadows.
With Terra’s demon, Titrainan, only his blue bulging, circular eyes can be seen. I don’t think he has teeth, but I can hear the snapping motion of a mouth from his direction. His form makes him seem shorter than Rega, but definitely wider based on what I can make out from the shadows. Never have I seen a living thing make Terra seem so small.
Hideo’s demon, who he calls Yarg, has a battalion of canines and fangs. I don’t see one molar in his set of teeth, each one pointed and sharp. The teeth also meet at a ninety degree angle, making his jaw unlike that of any animal I have ever seen. His eyes are completely black, and the only reason I can see them is because they are reflecting the light. Hideo seems unafraid though at least.
Clay’s demon reminds me much of Rega. The eyes are yellow though with slit pupils. The canines are huge, but seem more familiar, like that of predator, unlike Yarg. Sera seems to be moving on four legs, and even lays down behind Clay, who has not looked at her yet.
“Tell me, Alloya,” Rega taunts with a dip of her head. “What will you do now to appease us? I should warn you, to sate my rage is to sate my stomach.”
Titrainan speaks in a voice that sounds like he is also grinding his teeth. “Let’s not rush this, Rega.”
Rega maintains a buoyant attitude. “Of course, of course. Wouldn’t want to rush such a long desired opportunity. Let’s see them beg first.”
There’s something about this place, leaving us trapped with our own demons. It wants our hearts to race, but I just don’t buy it. These monsters who have been prisoners inside us and our ancestors for generations, they haven’t surrounded us like a predators getting ready to pounce. It’s more like they’re standing in front of the way out, forcing us to talk to them.
Then Titrainan says something that sets Rega off. “Let’s not make rash claims. We don’t know what we want to do with them exactly.”
Maybe I’m right on the money.
Rega’s devilish smile loses its prominence. “Dear Titrainan, you’re not implying that there is a chance of these Guardians actually leaving this place alive? Surely you don’t mean to stay in here?” When Titrainan doesn’t answer, ignoring Rega not unlike how I do, he causes a rise in her. “Are you an idiot?! They trapped us in these bodies, with no control for millions of years! You used to be feared by every living thing. Mother Nature would not have challenged you, or any of us. Where is your spine?”
Here we are reminded that that all of these beings are demons, not used to having any equals. Titrainan seemingly cranes his boney neck before threatening Rega, “Choose your words carefully, before you find yourself under my heel.”
This quickly has become a pissing contest between the two demons. While they do that I should think of a way to get us out of here. We need to break the mental connection between us, but Jackal did that last time, with only three minds. I don’t know how to go about replicating whatever he did for the five of us.
I try to move, my there’s this static feeling to my body. I didn’t even realize it, but I’ve been shaking.
Fearing for my life is not something I really worry about, so is this what it feels like?
Rega bares her teeth and growls as she leans back into the shadows. She snaps at Titrainan, “Big talk for a little calf. Keep talking, keep pushing, I’ll tear out your throat, whelp.”
Titrainan shoots back with a more violent threat, “You couldn’t break my shell with those splinters even if I gave you a millennia to chew. I’ll laugh at your broken teeth before I crush the life out of you. Or maybe I’ll squeeze your throat under my jaws, that way I can watch your eyes fade up close.”
Sera, finally speaks up. Where Rega sounds like she has mucus in her throat all the time. Sera insults them both, her voice brisk and clear. “And here I thought we matured after a few million years. Maybe I expected too much from two yappers.”
Rega swerves her head to bare her teeth at Sera, who remains unintimidated. “You want to say that again, bitch?” Rega challenges.
Bitch? They’re ancient beings of mass destruction and that’s the best insult she came up with?
When Sera hears that insult it sets her off for some reason, “You’ve always been an ugly thing on the outside Rega, it seems your insides have changed to match. Maybe if you weren’t so lacking in the brains department, we would know why Titrainan would want to spare any of these Guardians.”
Rega seemingly shows Sera her neck, as if a challenge to come at her. I bet the demons all see better than us, and certainly can make out each other in this darkness. Then she turns back to Titrainan. “Why do you wish to waste this opportunity, whelp?”
Titrainan ignores the comment this time. “While none of us remember how or why, we were implanted into these mortals for a reason. Has anyone ever wondered why?” When neither of the females respond and Yarg simply scratches his head, Titrainan comments, “Of course not. Why expect inquisitive thought from any of you?”
Rega and Sera immediately growl at him.
Then Sera asks him, “What does it matter?”
“Maybe we were a risk to ourselves, or our world. Maybe the sentient species simply all got lucky, but ones such as us do not find ourselves in the positions we are in for no good reason,” The more I listen to this demon, the more I find his inquisitiveness to resemble Terra’s own. The two should have gotten along, though Titrainan does seem to have his own love of insults.
Rega huffs and starts to make aggressive pants. I start edging as far away from her as I can go, though I realize that it would be futile.
My demon yells out, “I find that I don’t really care, all I want is for this witch,” she growls while gesturing her head to me, “to be dead and gone. Then I want to tear out both of your throats personally. Remind you who is your better.” Then with a crude smile, she threatens Clay, “I’ve wanted to know what Human taste like.”
Clay backs away towards Sera instinctively, and his demon becomes confused by this. “Why do you come to me?” she asks in an annoyed tone of voice.
Then Clay turns back to return Sera’s intense gaze. “Why do you have to ask that?” he answers her with another question.
Sera is out to break his will by telling him, “What possible reason could you possibly have for thinking that I would protect you?” the emphasis on the ‘you’ immediately signals a disdain for Clay.
In a tone that says that he is hurt, Clay answers Sera, “You said that I could trust you.”
When Clay says that we can all see Sera’s eyes widen, as if surprised by his reminder of some earlier claim. Then her eyes soften towards him. “You can trust me.”
Then Sera protectively swoops in at Clay with what looks to be a paw, surprising him and bringing him towards her. Sera immediately threatens Rega, “Come near him and you’ll learn what it is like to have your insides on the outside.”
Clay looks up at Sera with a smile.
Rega’s brow furrows, if you could even call what’s on her mishappen head a brow. Then she turns her gaze towards Hideo, sending an obvious signal in his direction.
Before my demon can even move, Yarg immediately starts growling like a maniac, and dips his head near Hideo. Yarg reveals his snout and his front teeth. His snout is black and pulled back, leaving huge nose holes.
Hideo pets Yarg’s snout and compliments, “I know you got my back, buddy.”
“I too have no desire to let you come near my Guardian,” Titrainan warns.
Rega grows enraged at the prospect of having to fight any of the demons for a meal. Then she sets her venomous eyes on me. “Fine, I’ll just have my own. Go back to being slaves. I’ll take my freedom.” Then Rega unclenches her jaw and comes at me.
I hear my friends yell out to me, but all I can do raise my arms up pointlessly.
I feel her breath when she is a split-second from having me in her mouth when something comes from above me to punch Rega in her face.
I immediately look up to see that a hove has knocked Rega back, and that it came from behind Womby.
“Enough, Rega!” a voice louder than everyone else’s booms. Then we all watch as large hooves move up behind Womby. I cannot make out its eyes, but I can tell that Womby’s is the biggest and tallest of all the demons. Seemingly even the most elastic. “Your childish rants, your outbursts, they annoy me. Not only that, Titrainan was right to worry about our pasts, pasts we have lost to time. You cannot kill your Guardian at the risk of something greater going wrong.”
You know, I haven’t put much thought into how or why the demons are here or stuck in us, but they seem mighty concerned with it. It makes sense, it just never seemed like something I could even learn about.
What do they know? What could they tell us?
Rega spews, “Do not get in my way Tortugan! I will wrench your bones-!”
Tortugan interrupts her, “You will be silent!”
I have never imagined Rega whimpering over anything, but she just did it. What is it about Womby’s Guardian that grants him so much respect? Also, how they all talk as if they knew each other before our team formed raises more questions than answers.
“All of the Guardians will leave, unharmed. And they should leave soon…”
Based on the threatening tone of his voice, and the power behind it, I admit that, “We would all love to leave, but we don’t know how.”
Tortugan huffs and puffs, obviously disgusted by everyone around. He informs me, “Cause yourself pain. Not someone else, you. I’ve left the door open for you to all leave.” When I look confused after Tortugan’s directions, he takes a jab at me,
“Have you never had to end a nightmare?” Then before I answer, he clarifies, “No, you’re more the one who causes the nightmare, aren’t you?”
A chill runs through my spine thinking about what he just said. Could he know something Womby doesn’t know?
No, there’s no reason to believe that.
I turn to all of my friends. “Don’t waste anymore time. Pinch yourself or something and leave now while that’s all you have to do.”
Terra went first, and since he cannot pinch himself, Titrainan flicks him hard, but not too hard. When that happens, Terra fizzles out, and his demon follows.
“I thought we had to hurt ourselves?” I questions.
“Were the two not sharing a body?” Tortugan questions back. Something tells me that he’s just trying to be coy with explaining things to us.
Then Hideo pinches himself only to fizzle away just as Terra did. Yarg disappears within the next second.
Clay hesitates, and tells me, “You first!” I can tell by the worry look in his eyes, he doesn’t trust for me to go last. I appreciate that, but I will not leave without making sure everyone else does too.
I glare at him and command, “Do as I say, Clay!”
Before Clay can try to stay behind with me, Sera squeezes him hard, which is enough to kick him and her out of this space.
Now that there is only Womby and me, Tortugan adds, “This place was created to help Womby escape, and since he was unconscious he was this place’s pillar. He is tethered and cannot leave before you.” I am not comfortable with that being the only choice I have, but admittedly, if Tortugan frightens Rega, he terrifies me.
But, before I go I look to Rega to see if she has any last words. She looks down at me and warns, “Never forget, mortal, you will die. I will be free of you and my prison, and I swear that you and your species will remember why you should have never stopped worshipping me.” Then Rega leans her face out of the light, revealing her hideous self to me. “I will end you, I swear this to you.”
I pinch my arm.
*****
I wake up in a much better place. My living room. It worked, I’m back.
With my powers back, I’m not tired anymore, and I’m on my feet without much effort. Just to be sure, I bring my hand to my cheek to make sure that everything is real as I watch everyone else wake up and take in what happened. Then I look at Womby, who is still unconscious.
“No,” I gasp, as I get down and crawl to him before his mother can and take him into my arms. “No, no, Tortugan said he had to go last, because the conscious was tethered to him and he had to leave last,” I explain to everyone. I hold Womby in my left hand and bring the palm of my right hand to his cheek.
Behind me Clay pleads, “Come on sea dude, wake up.”
We wait a few seconds and nothing happens. This cannot happen now. Please let Tortugan spare him.
I wait, and wait, then I hear him breathe.
Then cough, and then reach to rub his eyes.
The collective sigh is audible.
Womby opens his eyes to look at me, without the urge to kill me. “Wicked dream I had just now, Captain,” he jokes with a smile.
I show my teeth in a bigger smile. I tell him, “Don’t we all know it.”
Then Pekipsea swoops in to grab him away, hugging him close as any mother would want to.
As I want to with my own.
Before that, I turn around to see Clay, and his wounds are gone. As if reading my mind, Clay tells me, “Sera healed me while we were all in that, place I guess.”
I nod my head and stand up. I inspect my team around me, my friends, my family.
“We all almost died, back there,” I admit.
“Yeah, it was a little terrifying honestly,” Terra adds.
“But we made it,” Hideo adds, “it all worked out, so I remain correct as always.” I’m glad his confidence remains unshaken.
Terra points out, “Imagine if we didn’t. The whole galaxy would have been in mortal danger. We risked everything.”
We are all silent looking for something to add, as we think about how bad everything could be if even just one of us died back there.
Then with a slam of his fist, Clay yells, “It’s not fair, it’s all on us. We didn’t choose this shit! We were born with this until we didn’t know how to do anything else.”
Then Terra grumbles, “Everyone expects us to carry the world on our shoulders. How can anyone do that?”
I take the moment to kneel in front of Clay, and tell him the truth about us.
I rest both hands on his shoulders, and tell him, “There is no man or woman, no matter how fit he or she may be, who is capable of carrying the entire world on their shoulders, Clay. But never forget, we’re not simple men and women, we’re Guardians. We can hold the world because we are just that strong, and we’ll do it together. All of us.”
He looks at me with these lost eyes. I don’t know if I’ve gotten through to him.
The Terra points out that we are not all together. A fact I know too well.
“We still need to find our rookie.”
My daughter, my only daughter, is still missing. Alone, with powers she doesn’t understand or control. Now that the team’s crisis is momentarily averted, I need to fix my own crisis.
Clay grips me from under my elbows with his own hands. He looks me in the eye and promises, “We’ll find Aleti.”
“I know we will,” I assure him.
Aleti Ra’non
I materialize midair. Power drained and wasted. I collide hard against the cold, flat, unforgiving ground with a thump. A never ending ringing in my ear.
Everything hurts. Everything feels like it has been thrown against a wall every moment of the last few hours, because in a way everything has.
My body hurts to move. To wrap my arms around me to conserve warmth brings them pain.
The aftermath, the ache, the side effect of being sound, is still something I would chose over being sound itself, always.
A wind chill hits my whole naked body. I creek my eyes open, and I barely can see the light from the moons in this planet’s night sky.
I want my mom.